As we close out 2023, we take a moment to honor those loyalty programs that have dishonored their own members with the biggest snafus, most member-unfriendly changes, or other painful devaluations.  00:00 Intro 01:58 Giant Mailbag 04:51 Card Talk: Marriott Bonvoy Bevy & Bountiful cards https://frequentmiler.com/bonvoybevy/ https://frequentmiler.com/bonvoybountiful/ 10:41 What crazy thing . . . did Air France / KLM Flying Blue do this week?  https://frequentmiler.com/amazing-business-class-to-europe-from-13500-miles-one-way/ 21:44 Award Talk: Bilt adds Avianca LifeMiles  https://frequentmiler.com/now-transfer-bilt-rewards-to-avianca-lifemiles/ 24:48 Award Talk: IHG allows free point transfers between members....well, *some* members  https://frequentmiler.com/ihg-offering-diamond-elite-members-free-points-transfers-to-other-members-but-not-the-other-way/ 27:27 Finnair Plus announces new award charts and info  https://frequentmiler.com/finnair-plus-announces-award-chart-changes-to-take-effect-in-march-2024/ 38:19 Main Event: 2023 Bonvoyed Awards The Nominees.... 39:19: Marriott Bonvoys free night certificates  https://frequentmiler.com/marriott-rules-for-extending-free-nights/ 41:19 Hyatt / MGM marriage goes bust  https://frequentmiler.com/hyatt-farewell-cheap-mattress-runs-status-matching/ 43:51 Wyndham vacates their high-value Vacasa bookings https://frequentmiler.com/wyndham-vacasa/ 45:41 Delta dumps their devastation https://frequentmiler.com/delta-elite-shortcuts/ 47:52 Chase guts their Pay Yourself Back program 49:07 Air Canada Aeroplan's Etihad alliance goes astray 52:00 Hotels.com becomes 5x less rewarding  https://frequentmiler.com/huge-devaluation-of-hotels-com-rewards-new-one-key-program-only-giving-2-back/ 56:15 Nominee recap 56:42 Nick's pick for 2023 Bonvoyed Award 59:24 Greg's pick for 2023 Bonvoyed Award 1:02:41 Question of the Week: What is the best thing to do with 80,000 Membership Rewards points before we cancel Player 2's Amex Gold card? Music credit: Annie Yoder

The 2023 Bonvoyed Awards | Ep234 | 12-23-23

Earn miles without flying.  Frequent Miler is all about getting the most out of the loyalty game.  You can easily earn hundreds of thousands of points and miles without traveling, then learn how to use those points towards luxury travel.

In this podcast, Frequent Miler founder Greg, and senior author Nick debate current topics in the points & miles world.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Aviation

Games & Hobbies

Leisure

Hilton's SLH partnership is stirring up some excitement over Hilton, even for people like Greg who haven't bothered with Hilton cards for awhile, so this week we're discussing Hilton credit cards, credits, and free nights. (02:07) - We forgot about Qpoints last week... (Mail Bag) (05:10) - Citi Strata Premier (Card Talk) (10:33) - Citi accidentally made Strata Premier details public (Crazy Thing) (11:56) - Citi accidentally published FAQ showing that it may be possible to upgrade to Prestige card (Crazy Thing) (14:10) - Earn Delta MQDs on hotel bookings & car rentals (Mattress Running the Numbers) (16:58) - AutoCamp now bookable with Hilton points Main Event: Strategizing Hilton credit cards (20:40) - Hilton is the only major hotel program with easy to get, uncapped free night certificates (28:28) - Read about the Hilton Honors American Express Card here: https://frequentmiler.com/AmxHilton/#Goto (28:40) - Read about the Hilton Honors American Express Business Card here: https://frequentmiler.com/AmxHiltonBiz/#Goto (29:19) - Read about the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card here:  https://frequentmiler.com/hilton-honors-american-express-surpass-card/#Goto (30:00) - Read about the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card here: https://frequentmiler.com/AmxHiltonAspire/#Goto (31:18) - Earning free nights (43:51) - Earning rebates to keep cards net free (51:22) - Greg's strategy (1:01:00) - Nick's thoughts (1:05:01) - Is booking anything better than booking nothing? (Question of the week)  Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media. Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder

Strategizing Hilton cards, credits, and free nights | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep255 | 5-17-24

In addition to our regular weekly podcast, we also host an Ask Us Anything Live on YouTube once a month where the Frequent Miler team answers listener questions about points, miles, rewards cards, and whatever else comes to mind. This special episode (67) was streamed live on May 8, 2024 and introduces our 2024 annual team challenge! (06:10) - Hi FM Team, now that we are approaching Summer, what you are most looking forward to this Summer? (13:35) - how do you plan on handling the requirement for onward travel that many countries have in this challenge? (15:37) - What's the "budget" for the contestants in this challenge? (18:09) - Scoring? (And) Will the judges share their scoring criteria in advance? (19:06) - Will there be any opportunity for reader/viewer engagement at the convergence points? (24:00) - I hope you plan to document via Instagram stories this time! That's been my favorite way to watch along with the previous challenges in real time (28:48) - Can you guess where you're each getting sent? (32:17) - What is a place you are hoping you aren’t sent to? (35:39) - Thoughts on the strata? And the strata elite? Do you think there will be family language? (37:40) - Do you think that citi rebranding the premier signals a much better chance of a prestige replacement/csr comp coming in the next year or so? (40:30) - Thanks for all the awesome content! Citi has denied P2 and I premier 3 times in the last 2 years, should I product change my DC to Premier since it’s going away or try for Strata Elite? (42:13) - hi team! what's going on with transfers to Virgin? are points getting stuck in transit lately? would you advise holding off on transfers to virgin? (44:11) - Can you speak on the capital one VX business priority pass rumors? My newly issued card is a visa and I’ve read on other blogs that the visas won’t have restaurant access. Is this true? (46:46) - FHR Points question please - My Platinum AU is getting a points cost 33% higher than I get for the same stay, ideas on the reason? (49:29) - Question: what are the most rewarding ways to get 529 gift of college gift cards? (51:21) - Name your 6 must hit destinations if you were booking an ABA around the world trip (55:39) - Is it worth to move 100k out of Fidelity to Meryl to get platinum honors ? Did FM team saw any inconvenience on maintaining 100k in Meryl (58:36) - hi. I was recently informed by an Air France representative that it's permissible to forgo the first leg of a reward ticket and still utilize the second leg. Can you confirm this?"  Visit this link to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media. You’ll find all other Frequent Miler on the Air episodes here.  Music Credit – “Into the Never” by Annie Yoder

Announcing the 2024 Team Challenge | Ask Us Anything Ep67 | 5-8-24

Some credit cards offer extra perks or progress toward elite status for big spenders. On this week's episode, we talk about which of those bonuses might be worth the spend. But before we get into that, this episode is full of news you can use and tips to keep in mind in regular segments like Card Talk and Mattress Running the Numbers. (00:00) Intro (01:26) A tip we neglected to mention regarding positioning flights (Giant Mailbag) (05:33) Card Talk (05:46) Venture X Business card losing Priority Pass restaurant access for new Visa cards (Card Talk) (08:57) Qatar Airways Cardless Cards (Card Talk) (15:16) What crazy thing . . . did Cardless do this week?   https://frequentmiler.com/cardless-appears-to-have-a-1-card-restriction/ (19:32) Mattress running the numbers: Is it worth spending to Qatar Airways elite status? Note: The Qatar Club Infinite card also comes with bonus Qpoints in the first year, which reduce the path to renewing status for your second year. The spend we discussed regarding renewal of status really applies to status for year 3 and beyond. (28:17) Award Talk (28:20) Flying by the Seat of our Points: Frequent Miler's 2024 challenge  https://frequentmiler.com/flying-by-the-seat-of-our-points-last-minute-travel-challenge/ (31:33) You can now use JetBlue points to book Etihad and vice versa  https://frequentmiler.com/earn-redeem-between-jetblue-and-etihad/ (35:30) Bilt adds a new transfer partner....Hilton Honors  https://frequentmiler.com/bilt-adding-hilton-as-newest-transfer-partner-but-transfer-ratio-is-poor/ (37:32) Use Finnair Avios to book Nordic & Scandinavian hotels for great value  https://frequentmiler.com/use-finnair-avios-to-book-scandinavian-hotels-at-2c-per-point-or-better/ (40:30) Amex Travel positive experience honoring a fare (46:04) Our favorite big spend bonuses (46:45) Alaska Airlines companion certificates https://frequentmiler.com/as/ https://frequentmiler.com/asbiz/ (48:16) Hilton Surpass card free night certificate https://frequentmiler.com/amxhiltonbiz/ (49:14) Hyatt consumer & business cards https://frequentmiler.com/woh/ https://frequentmiler.com/wohbiz/ (57:39) IHG Premier & Premier Business cards https://frequentmiler.com/ihgprem/ https://frequentmiler.com/ihgbusiness/ (1:01:47) Barclays Aviator Silver Loyalty Point bonuses & companion certificate https://frequentmiler.com/aviatorsilver/ (1:06:20) Aeroplan  https://frequentmiler.com/aeroplan/ (1:09:25) Question of the Week: How did Greg build up capacity for his player 3? Music credit: Annie Yoder

Our favorite big spend bonuses | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep254 | 5-11-24

Nick just came back from a weekend in Toronto at the Toronto Travel Summit. In today's Coffee Break episode, he'll share 4 cool things he learned there.   (2:00) - Air France is working on upgrades using miles that sounds like it might be very reasonable. (07:30) - Aeroplan intends to bring back family pooling the same as it was. (09:17) - Aeroplan is actually working on getting partner space back up and running. (12:56) - Hotels could be a good use of Finnair Avios (18:08) - Networking at these things continues to be great! Lots of interested / interesting people & creators with different angles.  Visit here to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.  Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

4 Cool things Nick learned at the Toronto Travel Summit | Coffee Break Ep10 | 5-7-24

Sometimes you book an award ticket that requires you to do some positioning in order to catch that flight - for instance if the flight doesn't depart from your home airport. There are a few best practices to keep in mind when booking these "positioning flights", which we'll discuss in today's Frequent Miler on the Air episode. (01:08) - One reader writes in: "If you have Platinum Honors, I would rank the BofA Premium Rewards Elite card the highest for Priority Access by far. The airline credit offset is very easy to use and you get them all at once so there's no obnoxious coupon book"... (Mail Bag) (03:20) - BOA Premium Rewards (not elite) card (Card Talk) Learn more about this card: https://frequentmiler.com/boaPR/#Goto Revisit Frequent Miler on the Air Episode 204 here: https://frequentmiler.com/how-would-we-spend-1-million-dollars/ (04:57) - Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite card (Card Talk) Learn more about this card: https://frequentmiler.com/BOAPremiumRewardsElite/#Goto (11:17) - Cardless launching two Avianca LifeMiles cards (Card Talk) (12:35) - Marriott Homes & Villas 50K (Mattress Running the Numbers) (16:12) - Transfer bonuses (Award Talk) (21:29) - United increases prices on partner biz class awards within Europe & Asia (Award Talk) (24:06) - Nick: able to change Aeroplan award (Award Talk) (29:50) - Daily Getaways (Award Talk) Main Event: Tips for booking Positioning Flights (32:26) - Award discovery tools like PointsYeah DayDream Explorer tool and Seats.Aero make it easy to find awards such as "business class for 4 from "North America" to "Europe" (36:22) - Avoid checking bags! (37:37) - Departure positioning tips: what NOT to do Read Greg’s mad dash story (What NOT to do) here:  https://frequentmiler.com/my-award-alert-flight-change-and-a-risky-layover/ (40:33) - Day before is best (41:36) - Non-stop is best (less chance of delay) (41:56) - If not night before.... book primary positioning flight with long airport layover (43:15) - Useful to have lounge access for layover (46:02) - Book freely cancelable alternate positioning flight (49:20) - If back-up positioning flight isn’t an option, consider booking back-up for entire one-way trip (50:18) - Best options for free last-minute cancelations (56:48) - Back to Greg’s story. How he somewhat protected myself: (1:08:29) - Are there any certificates (like companion certificates) that disappear when you cancel the card? (Question of the Week)  Visit here to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media. You’ll find all other Frequent Miler on the Air episodes here. Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

The 2023 Bonvoyed Awards | Ep234 | 12-23-23

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